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St. Joe, June 19, 2004

By Larry Wright

What a difference a week can make. The flow on the St. Joe had dropped from 3700 cfs to 2500 cfs. That necessitated changing the planned Red Ives trip to Bluff Creek.

Terry Miller has a theory [you should be suspect when a kayaker starts developing a theory] that if he paddles with Larry and Mary, it's bound to rain. Well, I'm happy to report that we had sunshine at the put-in, take-out, and couple of places in-between. In fact, no rain at all, that is until the club trip was over and a pick-up trip in Skookum Canyon was under way.

At Bluff Creek, newcomers stood in shock, staring down at the Class IV put-in (referring to the steep, rocky bank, not the river). There were two tandems, four solos, and two kayaks to wrestle down the bank. Kayakers Terry Miller and Tim Ferguson had no trouble being first on the river.

One tandem belonged to Ken Fischman and Lanie Johnson, the other to Mike Higgins who was paddling with his daughters Sarah and Katie. Sarah paddled the first stretch and then relinquished her new paddling apparel to Katie for the after lunch run. Mike's wife provided sag wagon services. I'm not sure if she's supposed to learn about the boulder broaching incident, but Mike and Sarah leaned downstream and let the river help push them off. Great save!

Emily Bushnell, a solo open boater from Boston, came to Walla Walla for the summer to sample some Western rivers. This was her first. She reports great similarities: water runs down hill, bounces into, around, and over boulders. Larry, Mary, and Brian rounded out the group.

The only dangerous obstacle was the log at Quartz Ck, still spanning the river, with only the rightmost 4 ft still submerged. Just enough. Everybody made it (some scraping against the shoreline boulder was involved).

After the club trip, several paddlers stuck around to scout Skookum. The only takers were Brian, Terry, and Larry. It was Terry's first Skookum descent and Larry's first solo attempt. Brian is an old hand at it now. The canyon was lined with cheering crowds, paparazzi, and would-be rescuers (alas, no carnage). As mentioned above, it rained buckets. But no one fretted. It was a blast.